As Merciful As Lightning
by Sir Eddy
Summary: "There's only one difference between us Lightning. It's not who we kill, nor why we kill. It's not our apathy towards life, nor our indifference to death. It's that I've accepted the fact that's what I am; soon enough Lightning, I will make you do the same."
1. Chapter 1

It truly was a beautiful structure. It stood in plain view of thousands; its luster unavoidable to the eye. No matter what moment of the day, the light of the sun, whether directly from the source itself or reflected off the clear moon, made the crystal structure gleam with absolute magnificence. This awesome structure stood as a thing of beauty, but also as a reminder of how close doomsday came for its ex-inhabitants. It had been two years since Cocoon's fall and now what once sheltered the lives of millions was now cocooned itself in crystal. Now those it sheltered were slowly rebuilding their lives on a planet they once thought to be hell incarnate.

The people of Cocoon were taught and raised to believe that Gran Pulse was a hostile world, filled with creatures out for the blood of the innocent and that anything from the world was tainted. It was the worse place any person could think to live on. However, the refugees of Cocoon were now learning that the stories they had been told may have been filled with a good amount hyperboles describing how dangerous it was. It was a slow going effort, but in the last two years small towns and villages had been constructed and people were beginning to settle down.

Of course, settling a new world that, although it was not the hell it had been described as, was still hostile and teeming with many monsters was still a very dangerous thing to do. Though they didn't kill people out of spite, they were still animals and it was simply a danger that had to be contended with. This certainly meant that the Guardian Corps was very busy, with hardly a moment to breath. Of course, this was hardly a bother to Lightning as at it meant she was never bored.

She had settled into a good home in the two years she'd been living on Gran Pulse. It was located in the first town that had risen, which was located nearby the crystal pillar that held up Cocoon. Anywhere in the town, you could see the large structure and it certainly served as a reminder of how quickly things could go bad. However, as of now things were relatively calm despite occasional attacks from Pulsian creatures.

However, the unfortunate part about people is that when they are dislocated from their homes in such large quantities and so suddenly they'll have a tendency to resort to crimes to try and survive. Often times it is mild crimes, mostly thefts and some muggings. However there were the occasional murders here and there, but the perpetrator never got far. At least, most of them didn't. Lightning was much more of a combat orientated officer, so she never really handled the murder cases and rather was more of a civil protection agent; handling things such as the animal attacks or apprehending criminals. However it didn't mean she never heard the reports of the Guardian Corps agents who were a part of the investigative branch.

Over the past year-and-a-half, it seemed that a serial killer had sprung up and was giving the Guardian Corps a run for its money. They could not get any clues on the identity of the killer, not even finger prints, hair samples, and any blood they found belonged to the killer's victims. The only thing that really had on the killer was that he was a male of average height, and had quite the fondness for knives and was not beyond torturing people for sheer amusement; this theory being based on the fact that all his victims were simple folks trying to rebuild their lost lives. None of them had any important info, at least as far as the Guardian Corps knew.

Lightning wanted to get ahold of this scum as much as the rest of the Guardian Corps, but she knew that detective work wasn't her thing and so she figured it would be best if she simply continued with her civil protection until she either got a call on the killer's location or came across him by chance. That was an opportunity she eagerly awaited.

It did not seem likely she'd ever actually come across this man in her new place of residence, New Bodhum, as all the killings so far were occurring in smaller villages where security wasn't as tight. So she'd have to wait for HQ to give her the call that they found the man's location and have her apprehend him.

Though it was rather disappointing, Lightning was rather happy the killer was not located in New Bodhum simply because she knew Serah wasn't in reach of him. Lightning knew Serah wasn't in much danger, with her fiancé tailing her all over the place and NORA members also keeping a watch on the town, but Lightning couldn't help it really. Serah was still her little sister and Lightning would always be weary for her safety regardless. It was just a habit Lightning couldn't ever hope to be rid of.

Lightning scanned the crowd of people she was standing just outside of for anything suspicious. She had been placed on patrol duty in the mid-day shift, which meant now she had to watch a growing crowd as they went about their commute to wherever they were headed. Lightning never really enjoyed patrol duty, nothing very exciting tended to happen, other than possible pickpockets and maybe a mugging; certainly nothing that really required her to strain her abilities. She hated sitting at a desk handling paperwork more. Truthfully, it was odd for a Lieutenant of the Guardian Corps to be out on patrol, but Lightning had more than proven herself to be a skilled and valued member of the Corps so her higher ups allowed her more leeway in what she wanted to do. She certainly earned the privilege to do so.

Her thoughts drifted back to Serah, who was probably at school (or at least what counted as a school that could be made in the two years), being educated to become a teacher herself. Her and Snow had yet to get married due to how busy both were; Snow and NORA were helping people to build their new homes and also keeping things safe. Serah was also busy with her education, something Lightning was honestly glad for. It meant Serah understood the importance of an education and was not too wrapped up in any romantic fantasies of an easy and happy life.

The two were finalizing their plans for a wedding soon though, as Snow's schedule was beginning to clear up as more volunteers began to step up. Lightning wished they could give her a clear date as to when the wedding is, so Lightning could inform her COs that she would need to take a day or two off. It seemed however that Serah didn't even know when her own scheduled would be cleared long enough for them to have the wedding.

Lightning then glanced up towards Cocoon, and thought back to that fateful day two years ago when Cocoon fell. She hardly remembered being crystallized, but she wouldn't forget the moments afterward. The awe of seeing the newly Crystallized Cocoon, the joy she felt when she saw Serah had been freed, and the simple relief that all that hell was done and over with. Of course, the two years getting everyone settled was a huge mess. PSICOM had been badly damaged, but it still had just enough strength to harass Lightning and her fellow ex-L'cie. Eventually things cleared up, and since the Guardian Corps was still in mostly intact, PSICOM ended up being assimilated into the Corps.

It was fortunate that the group had been able to find themselves a good living after The Fall. Sazh was volunteering like Snow was to help people, except Sazh was out further into the less developed zones with his little boy, Dajh. He would often run flights between places to drop off supplies and needed material. She would occasionally see him when he would arrive in New Bodhum, where he would usually describe the conditions of the outlying settlements. Sometimes the news would be good, though is tended to be bad. Such is the struggle of people settling a new and foreign world.

Hope had been staying in New Bodhum with Lightning, as of now it was still unknown if his father had survived The Fall. Not wanting to leave him on his own, Lightning gladly took him in, though that didn't mean she was soft on him. She smirked ever so slightly at how nice it was to have another helping hand around the house; she certainly made him earn his home. Of course, he was quite busy now as he was undergoing the basic training to join in the Guardian Corps and he was only three weeks into BT. After that he still had a few more week of Advanced Individual Training before he'd even become a member. It's a tough fight, but Lightning was confident in Hope; after all, that boy had survived and fought through worse than what most Guardian Corps members would experience.

Speaking of new recruits, she caught site of a recent addition to the Corps across the crowd. He was a young man, only about a year or two older than Hope. She thought about what was his name for a second, and then watched as Reapy pulled a man from the crowd and motioned him towards a wall. Seems Reapy would make his first arrest today. Reapy had done very well in the training for the Corps and certainly showed promise, however Lightning decided she best provide some cover in the off chance something bad happened. One could be taught a great many things in training, but a Corps member could never be fully prepared for the randomness of the real world. Lightning herself has a few scars from criminals suddenly turning violent, or from friends of said person deciding they should try to stop the arrest of their pal. A person could never be completely prepared for what may occur out on the streets, so one always had to be on guard.

She watched as Reapy had the man place his hands against the wall and go spread eagle so Reapy could frisk him down for any weapons. As she made her way towards the two, Lightning felt like something was off about the situation. She watched around, scanning the crowd and even the rooftops for potential dangers and she couldn't make out any; she could not however shake the feeling that there was something dangerous in close proximity. She looked back towards Reapy and his catch, Lightning calmly keeping her hand near the handle of her Blazefire saber. She knew better than to actually grab hold of it until she needed to, less she get the crowd around her excited.

Reapy reached into one pocket and quickly wince before he pulled a simple steak knife the man had placed n his jackets left breast pocket. The tip of the knife had a small amount of blood on it, and Lightning could see a small cut on Reapy's finger. Reapy quickly went back to searching, finding this time a small pocket knife in the lower left pocket of the man's jacket. Lightning narrowed her eyes, still making her way through the crowd when she caught a good look of the man's hands. Though she could only see the backs, she could clearly see severe scarring from what appeared to be knives or some sort of sharp objects. The scars were criss-crossing and some even travelled towards his wrist down the back. All of the scars appeared to have the same causes; it seemed this gentleman had been playing with a lot of sharp objects.

The feeling of danger rose significantly, as she figured the man was the source of the feeling she felt. It only took a few seconds for the source of the danger to quickly present itself as Reapy reached into the right lower jacket of the man's coat. Reapy attempted to pull something from the pocket, but when it didn't give he pulled harder and the object came free. Everything seemed to slow down for Lightning as she heard a distinct metallic clink, and she watched a gleaming piece of metal spring into the air. The scarred man quickly turned and delivered a hard kick to Reapy torso, causing the rookie to stumble back and drop what he had taken from the man's pocket.

Lightning watched the metal cylinder Reapy had pulled free from the man's pocket drop and bounced off the stone road, the metallic clang it made ringing in her ears. Her eyes widened as she quickly turned herself away and dived away from the grenade. A moment later a loud bang rang through the streets, followed by the screams of fear and pain that came from pedestrians nearby. Lightning quickly rose back to her feet, ignoring a cut she had received on her leg from the flying shrapnel and quickly looked around at the damage. Her heart sank as she looked at Reapy, whose face and body had received the full brunt of the shrapnel of the grenade. His left eye was now a bloody mess, she could see several deep lacerations across his face and his nose was partially gone, and he wasn't moving or breathing. Then she took a glance around to assess the damage some more where she took notice of a few injured civilians, two of which looked badly injured.

Down the alleyway, it was near impossible for her to miss the fluttering of the culprits black jacket. Lightning knew other patrol units would notice the scene and quickly get medics to those who needed it, so she wasted no time and immediately took off after the man. He was fast, she gave him that, but there was no chance she was going to let him get away. Both easily vaulted over a knocked over trash can, and the two weaved around corners. Lightning drew her sword and switched it to gun mode, attempting a few shots but never having the man in her sights long enough to get a clear shot. She saw her opportunity as the man turned into a dead-end alleyway and she brought her weapon up to take some shots at him. What she hadn't expected to see was the culprit make a quick hand motion which was followed by him being covered by the familiar blue aura produced by a grav-con unit like the one Lightning had. She quickly recovered from the surprise and fired at the man, who was running up the wall towards the rooftop. When the bullets came close to his feet, he kicked off the wall and landed on the rooftops. Lightning was quick to follow and used her own grav-con to follow him up. The chase continued for several minutes as the man was vaulting over alleyways, going from rooftop to rooftop with Lightning in hot pursuit. She switched her Blazefire to its sword form after she had used up the ammunition she had, and at this point she was more than satisfied with running the bastard through. That opportunity came as the man jumped to a lower rooftop, landing in a roll and coming up to his feet to face her. She was already in mid-jump with her sword ready to hack at the base of the man's neck.

She however had underestimated the man's reaction time, as the man reached behind him, which was followed by a flash of metal as it deflected her saber strike. In that quick moment where her weapon was lowered, it having been parried, she saw another flash of steel then felt a sharp pain go through her arm as it was struck. Lightning made all effort to shut the pain out enough to keep ahold of her weapon, and the man took advantage of this quick lapse of concentration and gave Lightning a hard push kick to the side, knocking her back. She lost her footing, but fell into a roll then came back up onto her feet, just in time to bring her sword up to block a strike from the man. The first attack was followed by another strike aimed towards her thigh, which she adeptly dodged with a spin followed by a counter hook kick across the man's face. He stumbled to the side then stumbled back more as Lightning kept with the spin and delivered a hard side-kick to the man's stomach causing him to buckle. She was already slashing at the man, as she had expected him to stand back up, where his head would be directly in the path of her sword. However, instead of standing up, the man took a step forward then came down on his knee with his leg between Lightning's. She felt him wrap his arms around her just beneath her ass where he then stood up, lifting the woman off her feet. Being airborne only for a second, the wind was knocked out of her and was replaced by pain as the man slammed her onto the cement rooftop. This time she couldn't manage to keep hold of her weapon as the pain surged through her arm that was holding said sword. Her head also met the rooftop, and it made her vision swim. She fought her body's urge to black-out right there, but could do nothing to fix her vision. She felt the man quickly take a full mount position on her, then felt cold steel against her neck; she recognized the feeling of the steel as a knife.

_I can't die like this!_ She thought to herself, thinking of any way she could stop the man form slitting her throat, but her vision had yet to refocus and she was only beginning to recover any air. _No dammit!_ She cursed as she awaited the sharp pain to surge through her throat as he slit it. It took her a few moments to realize though that there was no pain even though the steel remained against her throat. She started to hear the sound of the man laughing, and then wondered if the freak was planning to take advantage of her; she swore that she'd rather die than have a man force himself upon her. However, the man only kept laughing as he kept the knife pressed to her throat, and her vision was quickly coming back into focus.

"Now that is the Farron I expected to deal with, however I'm surprised you left yourself so vulnerable to a takedown like that." the man said once he had ceased laughing. She finally got a good look at him, Lightning taking in his messy, sandy colored hair and dark brown eyes. She could also see a harness of sorts which had multiple knives sheathed on it underneath his black jacket. It seemed her wish of encountering the killer had come true, though this wasn't how she had hoped it would play out.

She struggled in an attempt to throw him off, but quickly stopped as he pressed the blade of his knife against her neck more. "No, no, no Lightning, not yet." The man smiled down at her, the two looking into one another's eyes. She simply growled at him, glaring daggers up at him.

He gave her a friendly smile in complete contradiction to what he was doing. He smacked his lips just before he spoke again, "Now then Lightning, I…" he then paused for a moment, seeming to be thinking of what he was going to say next. " I would like it if you'd remain calm, as this process will go much quicker." When she tried to struggle more, he simply grinned as she winced slightly as he made a small cut into her throat, enough to remind her just what was pressed against it.

"You see, now that, that is what I meant by staying calm. I really have no interest in killing you right now as that would ruin all the fun." She couldn't move one of her arms as he had pinned it beneath one of his knees, but that didn't stop her from attempting to punch him with the other one. He quickly dodged her punch and used his free arm to grab ahold of her elbow and pinned her arm to his torso. She tried once more throw him off, but didn't have any luck.

"How about I introduce myself, hm?" he made a clicking sound with his tongue before giving her another smile. "My name is..." He paused again, something that Lightning was beginning to become increasingly annoyed with. "Dale, Dale Rodomir III." He then removed the knife from her throat and used that hand to keep her free arm pinned to his torso still as Dale reached into a pocket on the inside of his jacket. She tried once more to throw him off, but she couldn't get the right leverage to sweep him off her and she certainly didn't have the raw strength to just muscle him off.

Dale then removed a rectangular device that had a small circuit board with a couple wires connecting to various spots. A small antenna was sticking off the circuit board, and Lightning recognized it to be a makeshift detonator. Her eyes widened before she sneered more, she refused to just lie there so she kept trying to throw Dale off.

"I want to make sure that you, Ms. Farron, will take me seriously when I give you your choice." Dale gave her a friendly smile once again as he pressed one of two buttons that was on the detonator. Lightning jerked her head towards the sound of an explosion as it went off, eye widening before she tried again to get Dale off her. Once the sound of the explosion had subsided, Lightning could hear the screams of people followed by the sirens of the Guardian Corps as they went to investigate the cause and to help those in trouble.

Lightning tried again, but he kept his balance as he began laughing. "Dammit!" Lightning shouted as she kept trying to throw him off, however she was quickly stopped as Dale returned his knife to her throat.

Dale hadn't stopped his laugh, something that managed to slightly unnerve Lightning. It sounded like a genuine laugh; the freak was actually enjoying all this. "Lightning, "He began after he had finished his laugh, "Please, tell me. How long has it been since your sister escaped her crystallian state?" Lightning immediately sent him a death glare, but didn't attempt to move with the knife still pressed to her neck. Dale gave her a smile once again as he chuckled some. "It would be quite the shame for it to only be two years, right? I mean," He paused again he looked off towards the recent explosion then continued, "Not married, hasn't finished her education, and not even of the drinking age yet!"

"Don't you dare touch my sister!" Lightning shouted and attempted once more to throw Dale off, this time succeeding. Dale fell to his side as Lightning sprang up to her feet, grabbing hold of her sword on the way up and stabbed down towards Dale. She finally saw the weapon he had been using as he brought up the metal, telescopic stick to block her thrust and knock her off balance. He then quickly scrambled to his feet in time to deflect another strike from Lightning, but Dale had made the very poor mistake to threaten Lightning's little sister. She planted a hard push kick into his sternum, knocking him onto his ass and was already in mid-lunge at him. Dale parried her blow once more, but this time she came down in the full mount position on Dale and went to place her gun blade against Dale's throat. He managed to bring up one of his sticks (which Lightning just noticed had a spike at the end of it) and place it between his neck and her weapon. Lightning then saw him quickly hit the second button on the detonator.

She growled and began pressing the blade down towards his neck when he decided to start talking again. "The thing I noticed around here is that no one is very observant or good at keeping things guarded. Schools especially." Lightning's eyes widened before she sneered and kept pressing the blade down closer and closer to Dale's throat. Lightning was then tossed forward as Dale bucked his hips, forcing Lightning to catch herself, which he then grabbed one of her arms and rolled them over, where he quickly threw a punch towards her face. Lightning easily blocked the wild punch, but it gave Dale enough time to get to his feet where he quickly backed away from her.

Lightning rose to her feet once more and began to walk towards Dale when he held up the detonator. "Four minutes and thirty seconds Lightning. That's how long you have before your sister is vaporized." He began to laugh again as Lightning stopped dead in her tracks, sending Dale a glare. "It originally was five minutes, but you just had to try and kill me didn't you, it's what you are best at after all, right?" She gripped her gun blade so tight, her knuckles were turning white.

He grinned at her, "Four minutes and twenty seconds now, best get running, the school is a good ten minute walk from here!" He then began to laugh as he began to walk backwards away from her. She would have shot him dead, but now she was out of ammo and if she tried to get him at this point her sister would be long dead. Lightning mentally argued with herself what to do before she cursed the bastard and quickly began sprinting towards the makeshift school that Serah was attending. The sound of Dale's laughter was fading behind her, but it still rang clearly through her mind. She shut it out however as she ran as fast as she could to try and save Serah.

Lightning tried not to think about how much time she had left and simply told herself to keep moving. She kept hopping form rooftop to rooftop and when she had to take the streets, she lost count of how many unfortunate people she knocked over to get by them. It felt like she was back at Guardian Corps basic training with how exhausted she felt. Of course running a marathon was easy for her, but sprinting the length of a damn marathon was something else. She had no idea just how much time she had when she finally came upon the building Serah was at, but everything hurt by this point. The building was still there, but for how much longer she had no idea. Then she saw Serah walking form the building, talking with one of her good friends. There was not a moment wasted as Lighting willed her muscles into one last sprint.

Serah had no idea what hit her when she and her friend were blindsided by Lightning. The older sister than grabbed the two students and flung them to the ground behind a small concrete wall, falling on top of them both to shield the students from the explosion that followed only a few seconds later. Lightning just kept her herself as low as possible and kept Serah and her friend pinned to the ground as the bombs went off from inside. Lightning felt the heat wave of the blast go by her and got a face full of dust as it was kicked up in every direction.

As things settled, Lightning slowly lifted her head up to take a look at the damage. She saw many people running around in chaos, and she could also make out several injured individuals, which a few Lightning could already tell would not survive their wounds. Several corpses littered the area, many of which were badly burned and a few unfortunate souls had been scattered in several different directions. The building's front entrance was much wider, and another entrance had formed on the side. The majority of the structure was still intact, but Lightning could see clearly that a good portion of the inside had been badly damaged with some parts just being out right destroyed.

Serah quickly shoved her sister off her as she peeked over the concrete wall that had given them shelter and stared horrified at the building she had just been inside. Her friend was at the point of breaking down as Serah looked at Lightning. The lieutenant sounded as if she was having an asthma attack with how hard she was breathing, and she looked pale as all hell.

Lightning's vision was quickly beginning to fade as she finally gave up the fight to remain conscious. She barely heard Serah call her name as everything went black; the last sound that ran through her head was the sound of Dale's laugh.


	2. Chapter 2

Lightning wasn't sure how long it had been or where she even was as she began to open her eyes. It only felt like she had blinked, but judging by the soft material she was lying on she could assume that it had been awhile. She quickly forgot about all the details as a splitting headache came upon her. She groaned and took hold of her head in her hands. She quickly stopped moving her right arm with a sharp inhale of air as she felt a pain surge through her right forearm. She cracked her eyes open as the headache began to simmer down some and took in her surroundings.

There were beds all around the large room in which several people were lying in, some of whom were sleeping ( least that's what she hoped), while other were groaning and crying from pain. Most of them were bandaged up with some of the bandages being red from the injuries they must have suffered, while others were covered in some severe burns. Lightning caught sight of a few nurses who were attending to the injured, and saw the symbol of the Guardian Corps on their uniforms. From this, Lightning figured she must be in the Guardian Corps infirmary.

Lightning quickly sat up, but quickly regretted it as she felt light headed and dizzy and quickly fell back onto the bed she was lying on. She groaned again as she felt the headache return in full force and closes her eyes tightly in a futile attempt to make the pain go away. Once the pain had degraded to more comfortable, or rather tolerable, levels, Lightning opened her eyes and stared blankly at a wall as she began to remember what had occurred.

It wasn't hard to forget seeing Reapy being taken out by a grenade, or Lightning chasing and engaging Dale. It also wasn't difficult to figure out why she felt so damn tired and sore when she had to do a mad dash to save her sister from being killed in the explosion set off by Dale. Lightning glanced down at her forearm to see it having been wrapped up in a cast; _must have fractured it during the fight,_ Lightning thought to herself. That probably was the case, as she clearly recalled taking a hit to the forearm by one of Dale's clubs and then having Dale's and her own body weight crush her arm as she was slammed onto the cement rooftop. She frowned as she realized it meant she couldn't move her wrist freely now.

"It's good to see that you are awake, Lieutenant." Said one of the nurses as she walked up to the bed Lightning was on. Lightning looked over at the nurse, and nodded slightly.

"How long was I out?" Lightning asked as the nurse did a quick check on Lightning's arm.

"I'm not too sure, I can tell you that you've been unconscious for about…" the nurse trailed off as she looked at a watch on her wrist, "About ten hours since you arrived here."

Lightning's eyes widened as she went to sit up, but her head told her that was not going to happen through the use of pain and dizziness, forcing Lightning to lie back down once more.

"Please Lieutenant Farron, you need to rest more. Your body took quite a beating from whatever you did." The nurse said as she looked at the injured woman. "Truthfully, when you were brought in we were worried you wouldn't wake up. Your sister will be very relieved to know that you are at least awake."

Lightning immediately looked at the nurse and was about to saying something when the nurse quickly shushed Lightning, much to her annoyance. "Serah is perfectly fine despite a few scratches. She was in quite a panic when the medics had arrived on the scene, but she's fine I promise you." That was hardly reassuring for Lightning; until she saw and checked Serah herself she would remain anxious about her sister's condition.

"Well I'll let you rest up now. " The nurse said as she finished checking on Lightning. "Also, there is a member of the investigative branch here who wants to speak to you when you are ready. His name is Henri Robespierre and I'm guessing that he is here concerning the attack. So when you wish to see him just call over a nurse and they'll go fetch him." With that the nurse turned and left to go check on the other injured individuals. Lightning watched then nurse go before staring up at the ceiling. She certainly was in no mood to talk with anyone at the moment; all she could really think about was the throbbing pain in her arm and head, whether Serah was ok, and also where that freak Dale had run off to or who he may attack next.

She was so distracted by her thoughts she hadn't even noticed she had fallen asleep until she "blinked" again and found a couple patients now missing from the infirmary. There were only two nurses left and they were simply checking up on the patients here and there to see how they were doing. A new nurse came up to Lightning this time, a man in his mid-ages Lightning guessed by the small amounts of grey in his beard and hair.

"Welcome back to the living world Ms. Farron." The nurse said as he gave Lightning a quick check over. She realized that her headache had subsided and her arm had also ceased hurting as badly as it had been earlier.

Lightning however simply groaned in response then asked him for the time. "It is 20:34 Lieutenant." She returned her gaze to the ceiling, wondering once more how Serah was doing. Lightning then remembered the nurse from before mentioning the detective and she wondered if he was still waiting outside. As much as she'd rather talk with Serah first, Lightning didn't know where her sister was or had anyway quick way of getting ahold of her. Lightning could guess that Serah was probably with Snow (whom Lightning figured was in such a defense mode he was probably trying to protect Serah from anything remotely harmful). Plus, if the detective was right outside the infirmary Lightning felt she might as well get the questioning out of the way now. If she explained the scenario while it was still fresh in her mind, it may help the Corps locate Dale.

"Excuse me, is there a Detective Robespierre waiting for me still?" Lightning asked the nurse as she looked at him.

The nurse looked at her, "I can go see, if there is do you wish for me to send them in for you?" When Lightning nodded, the nurse asked her to wait a moment where he left the infirmary. She started trying to remember every detail of the incident she could as she knew that the Detective was going to ask her for every detail she could give. After a few minutes of quiet, Lightning looked towards the door as she heard it open and watched as a man wearing a black, grey and yellow overcoat with the Guardian Corps symbol enter into the room. He shut the door as quietly as he could before he glanced around and noticed Lightning.

This must be the detective Lightning thought to herself. He wasn't anything remarkable, having short dark brown hair with brown eyes to match. He wore the standard Guardian Corps uniform, except in was colored black with shades of grey, with his overcoat hiding any details of the sleeves. From his physique, Lightning wondered if he had just passed the minimum physical fitness score to enter the Guardian Corps. Of course if that was the case it might explain why he was a detective rather than a civil-protections officer. She was also curious about how much combat his sword and pistol saw.

As he stepped up to her, he quickly took the position of attention and gave her a salute, staring straight ahead and holding the position in silence. Lightning narrowed her eyes before mentally slapping herself when she noticed the sergeant pauldron on his left shoulder. Lightning closed her eyes and shook her head before looking back at him and returning the salute the best she could, which once she relaxed he did as well. He seemed to be quite a disciplined individual as well.

He then looked at her and gave a smile. "Hello Lieutenant Farron, a pleasure to meet you. I'm Detective Henri Robespierre, Sergeant in the Guardian Corps, which you probably already know. I trust you know why I am here?" He then pulled up a chair and took a seat down next to the bed Lightning was on. Lightning just nodded in return as she sat herself up to a more comfortable position, looking at Henri. "Lieutenant, if you wish to rest more before I ask my questions you may. I mean I'd rather get the answers sooner but it is your choice."

"Just ask the damn questions already." Lightning said in an irritated tone. Obviously she was ready or else he wouldn't even have been summoned, ignoring the clear fact Lightning had sat up to listen better as well.

Henri just nodded, "Fair enough, firstly, I want you to tell me all the details you can remember. I mean any detail, from his clothes to the way he walked, even any badly trimmed nose hairs. You know the drill I imagine."

Lightning rolled her eyes before she started talking about what had happened to the best of her memory. She calmly went over every detail, from Reapy's attempted arrest down to her hauling ass to save Serah. She spent a good portion of the story describing Dale, from the color of his hair and eyes down to the clothing he wore. The whole time she spoke, Henri was quickly writing down notes on a small electronic notepad he had pulled from a coat pocket. They were very useful items to be had, allowing a person to store up to four hundred pages worth of notes in a device smaller than most twenty page notepads.

As Lightning finished up by describing the type of blast that had gone off at the school, she looked at Henri who had not once ceased writing down notes during her tale. She watched him for a few moments as he finished up writing, then he looked back at her with a small smile. "Thank you Lieutenant Farron."

"So what else do you want to know then?" asked Lightning as she laid her head back against the wall behind the bed; She was happy that the headboard of the bed was low enough that it did not dig into her back as she sat back against the wall.

"Ok, first off these questions may seem dumb or obvious, but again any detail helps the investigation. So, first question: Has there been anyone with substantial resources or any particular criminals with resources that you've upset recently?"

Lightning watched him for a moment as she thought the question over. Well just about anybody she arrested and detained was always upset, and it certainly wasn't uncommon for some to threaten her with either physical or legal force. Hardly any of them ever followed through, though she did have one instance where one man's friends decided to jump the officer that arrested their friend. Now they were in jail and had hospital bills to pay along with the fines for assaulting a civil-protections officer.

After a few moments of deliberating, she shook her head. "None that I can clearly think of," She said. "I've certainly been threatened a good number of times, but very few every live up to their bluster." Henri nodded his head to show he was listening as he went back to writing down on his notepad once more. "I can tell you detective that I don't know of any people whom I've arrested that would have access to a buddy as vicious or crafty as Dale was."

Henri nodded before sitting back in his chair and looking at her, "Does the surname Rodomir sound familiar to you at all? Any history at all between the Farrons and any Rodomirs that you know of?"

"Unless my parents hid a few secrets from my sister and I, I would have to say no. It may be possible there was something from long ago."

"However, you are probably thinking the same thing I am, in that it seems to have been a rather long time to execute one's revenge."

Lightning nodded, "Maybe they were just a family of cowards and now there is the one unique apple in Dale, but I don't think that's the case because I trust that my parents would not leave something like a feud between families a secret."

"Alright then," Said Henri as he wrote a few things down then looked back at her, "Did Dale say anything to you that really stuck out?"

Lightning looked off towards a wall as she thought about that for a moment, then looked back at Henri. "He had taunted me by claiming, "Killing is all I do best" to put it in a nutshell. I'm not entirely sure what he was trying to achieve there."

"Anything else?"

Lightning shook her head, "Only odd thing was that he was giving me a choice whether to kill him or save Serah. I'll give Dale credit in that was something I've never seen criminals do before."

"Are you saying he dropped his guard to let you kill him?" Henri asked her.

"No, but…" Lightning paused, "He knew he had pressed my buttons, and he kept taunting me even when I was close to slitting his throat back. I was more than prepared to kill him there, but then he gave me the choice."

Henri scratched his chin for a moment, lost in his own thoughts before shrugging. "Well, I find it rather difficult to claim just yet that he knew you would have killed him. Though, I do want to say he had the trap set up to save his skin if you caught him off guard."

Lighting narrowed her eyes at Henri, "But that wouldn't make sense considering he clearly had the opportunity to kill me."

Henri nodded and leaned back in his seat. "Yeah, you are right about that. A trap like that needed planning to know where Serah would be and when, also considering the use of his first bomb to get your attention."

Lighting sat up more and winced slightly when she moved her arm the wrong way. She cursed her broken arm mentally before speaking, "Well I think it's pretty clear that he was targeting me."

"That's just what command was thinking as well." Henri then put his notepad away as he looked at her. "That is why I've been assigned to accompany you." Lighting tried to hide her distaste, but she couldn't keep the annoyed groan in her head. Though she didn't mind back-up, Lightning still had a bit of a lone wolf attitude when it came to certain things and most Guardian Corps duties fell into that category. However, Henri just chuckled softly to himself, apparently not offended at all from her reaction.

"I'm sorry Lieutenant, but command wants you to one have a partner as assistance, but it also be someone of the investigative branch to help further solve this case. We can't risk letting someone like Dale to run around free for too long." Lightning just sighed, excepting the orders for what they were. She couldn't argue with their logic anyways, if Dale had her in his sights it would make sense to have someone else there to assist her. Of course now that she thought about it, why it was somebody who looked rather scrawny and had a sword that didn't have a nick on it was a mystery to her. Who cares if he can figure out a damn crime scene when Dale wasn't to intent on hiding and could at the least hold his own against Lightning.

Henri took a moment to grab hold of his head in both arms and twist his neck some until a loud pop came from it, followed by him doing the other side. "Oh that was a good crack, eh?" Lightning just rolled her eyes before speaking up again, "Detective Robespierre, I also want to suggest the theory that Dale may be the killer that's been running around lately. I say this based on how much he enjoyed his knives and the variety he had." Henri looked at her before pulled his notepad out again and quickly scribbled down more notes.

"We seem to be on the same page with a lot of things Lieutenant Farron. I was thinking the same thing when we investigated the scene and found different varieties, from steak knives, hunting knives and even a fruit knife." He paused for a moment, looking at her again." Hell we found a potato peeler on the rooftop where you fought with him." Lightning looked at Henri, somewhat surprised before shrugging.

"Are you going to inform command of this theory?" she asked.

He nodded "With you thinking the same thing, I will definitely bring it up to them next chance I get."

Lightning nodded her head as well before she looked towards the ground. There was one question on her mind that she didn't want to ask, but it was just bothering her not knowing the answer. She finally decided to ask Henri about it. "Detective," Henri looked up at her as she returned the look, "How many people did Dale kill yesterday?"

Henri looked at her then slowly leaned back in his chair as he let out a depressed sigh, "Two were killed by the grenade, Officer Reapy being one of them. We had five confirmed dead at the scene of the market bomb, two more having died of their wounds recently with other still in critical condition. As for the school bomb," He paused, looking down at the ground before back at her, locking eyes with her. "The school bomb has thirteen killed at the scene, twenty-two more in critical condition, five dead from their wounds after they reached the hospital. Some were killed from the blast; others from the fire that the bomb had caused. We determined that both bombs were gas based due to relatively small amount of structural damage from the blasts."

Lightning slowly nodded her head before closing her eyes. She couldn't help but feel partially at fault. If she had been less reckless she may have killed Dale and prevented all this. Instead she had become a little arrogant in her abilities over the past two years and doubted Dale's, and now he's still running free and possibly killing more people. She'd remember that next time she met Dale; things would not go over so well for the madman. She reopened her eyes as she looked at Henri again. "Any more questions for me?"

Henri shook his head as he put his notepad away again and stood up from his seat. "Nope, now when you've recovered Command wants you to report to HQ. Guess they also want to hear the details straight from you, as well as to give you any needed briefings. That's where we will also begin our assignment together." He gave her a salute, which Lightning did her best to return to him before they both relaxed. Henri gave her another smile "Sleep tight Lieutenant." He then turned and left the infirmary, leaving Lightning there to her own thoughts.

She thought again about her little sister, wondering where she was and how she was doing, whether or not Dale was attempting to get her again, and whether that big oaf of a fiancé of Serah's was doing his job in protecting her. Lightning shook her head, _Of course Snow is. Sure he may not the most graceful thing on this planet and he may get on my nerves here and there, but he's a very reliable person and he'll do everything in his power to protect Serah._

Lightning closed her eyes again, relaxing some knowing that Serah was truly in good hands. Of course that didn't last long as her subconscious began generating scenario after scenario of Serah possibly being killed. If Dale could outsmart Lightning even once, she wasn't the most confident in Snow's ability. _Lovely, I'm tired, I want to sleep, but I can't stop worrying. Sometimes I hate having a little sister to take care._


	3. Chapter 3

Command did as much as Lightning had expected them to which was tell her to do exactly what she had planned to do, find and apprehend Dale. Lightning wanted to see him hang from a rooftop by his neck, but orders were orders. Her outward expression didn't show the large mental smile she had when she remembered that lethal force was allowed if the target was presenting a significant danger and she had a feeling her target wouldn't just waltz into Guardian Corps custody. So despite her orders, she was rather excited.

Henri and Lightning had just come from HQ, where Lightning had delivered a similar report to her COs that she had given to Henri. As she did, they also glanced over the notes Henri had taken and then they gave Lightning her orders to go after Dale. She wasn't too excited to have Henri accompany her, but that was because she simply preferred to work alone. She looked over at the detective who was just watching ahead blankly as they walked along the streets. Lightning had no idea about his combat abilities, especially with his chosen weaponry which consisted of a pistol holstered on his right hip with a short sword hooked onto the left side of his hip. She took notice of the lack of nicks and scratches on the blade. It was polished and sharpened, but then again so was her Blazefire Saber. Other than Serah, that was the one thing she loved and took care of with all her heart. Her sword however had small nicks on the blade from where it may have hit the metals and other hard surfaces that consisted of her enemies' weapons or armor. Henri's didn't show any of these, which worried her slightly. Even if he only fought with gangbangers and street thugs, one of them would at least carry a strong enough weapon to make some form of mark on his sword.

"Need something Lieutenant?" Henri asked without looking at her.

Lightning blinked then shook her head; she hated it when she would stare like that. "Just looking at your weapons is all. Nice pieces of equipment there." She responded as she looked back ahead.

"Thanks, they aren't as intricate as your gun blade, but they get the job done."

"I would imagine they would. Weapons don't need to be fancy to be effective."

Henri smiled, "Oh I know, it's all about the operator and not the weapon itself, hence why a gun blade in your hands is forty times better than in the hands of someone less agile and dexterous like me."

Lighting scowled slightly as she looked at him, "I hope you're not trying to be a suck-up. It'll only make this partnership even more difficult."

Henri quickly looked at her and held up his hands, "No, no! Sorry I didn't mean for it to sound that way. I'm just saying that combat is not my specialty, I'm much better at this detective work."

Lightning just shook her head, looking back ahead. "Well, don't get in my way too much and we should be ok."

Henri nodded then looked back ahead, "Was my plan all along. You fight and I figure out how Dale ticks."

"Good" was Lightning's only response. She looked around at the crowd she and Henri were walking through. People seemed relatively unaffected by Dale's attacks. She did take notice that there were not as many people out and about, so maybe some were cautious about going anywhere. Then again it was late and most people were probably at their homes, settling in for the night. Lightning had decided to search for Serah, as she still wanted to check up on her sister. Judging by the time, it being 19:45, and that Serah was more than likely still with Snow, Lightning assumed they were at the new bar NORA had set up. Lightning felt those resources probably could have gone to a better cause, but Lightning also understood alcohol was one of man's best ways to simmer down and so it served a purpose of sorts. Plus drunks did help keep Lightning busy (though it wasn't what she would call entertaining, just an embarrassment to the human race.)

The two glanced over at the market bomb site as they walked by it. It was badly scorched from the heat blast of the bomb, and most of the damage the surrounding buildings had received was shattered windows along with flame and smoke damage. The bombsite was a wreck and that part of the market wouldn't be used for a while. Henri had said that the owners, an old middle-aged couple that grew most the food they sold, were caught right in the epicenter of the blast. She scowled at the thought; those two didn't deserve to die, especially in the manner they did. Lightning didn't know them personally, but she knew they were some of the nicest people she'd ever met. Hell they would sometimes give Lightning some extra produce as a token of gratitude for the work she did.

It seemed to be a vicious cycle Lightning had found herself caught in because she couldn't stop thinking about killing Dale, and it would only anger her more when she was even thinking about him and all she could hear was that damn laugh of his. He was the last person she wanted to think of but she just couldn't stop and that just made her even more angry and tense. She sighed heavily before looking back ahead, _all in due time Lightning, all in due time._

She just hoped that when she met up with Serah, Dale would slip from her mind. That didn't mean she'd drop her guard, but she just hoped she could think of happier thoughts. The bar was not far from them now, at best maybe a block or so. It wasn't a spectacular building, a single story red building with simple windows lining the sides. It has a double door at the front to let people in, and Lightning could see several late night drinkers standing outside. She could easily see several were drunk simply because they couldn't maintain their balance even while standing. She shook her head as she walked by a man who had face planted into the hard dirt when he tried to walk, Henri following right behind her as they entered into the bar. The inside was as simple as the outside, it being a large open room with tables and chairs scattered around. The bar itself sat at the back with stools sitting in front of it. There she saw who she was hoping to, and that was Serah sitting next to Snow, along with a few members of NORA with them.

Lightning didn't really know any of them personally, but she at the least knew their names. Lebreau, the proprietor, and looked like the only employee, of the bar was standing behind said bar talking with the others. She scowled as she looked at the two young men that were also hanging out with the group, Yuj and Maqui. She didn't think either were of drinking age and, though they may be close to Snow, she wouldn't hesitate to arrest them for it. She hated to admit that NORA did good for the refugees of Cocoon, they helped to hold back animal attacks and such, but Lighting didn't like that they didn't follow the authority of the Guardian Corps ( or at least not as much as she wish they did.) They were a vigilante group first and sometimes they had a knack for making the Guardian Corps seem inept and cruel, whether it was intentional or not.

Gadot and Snow were busy conversing with one another, so the only one who actually turned to look as Henri and Lightning walked in was Serah, whose face immediately lit up due to the big smile that appeared at the sight of her sister. Lightning was well prepared for the hug, which some may have mistaken for a tackle, that she received from Serah. Henri glanced towards Snow, then back to Lightning and scratched his head, "Damn you Farrons can move fast." He said.

Lightning couldn't suppress her own smile as she hugged Serah back, and after a moment or two, they finally separated and looked at one another. The older sister's protective instincts quickly kicked in as she looked over Serah for any injuries, an action which received a small chuckle from the younger Farron. "Lightning, I'm fine. The worst I managed to get was a scratch on my elbow from when you tackled me."

Lightning looked back at Serah and gave a small smile. Serah seemed to be both mentally and physically fine, so finally Lightning could relax about her sister's current condition. "You're welcome." was Lightning's response.

She looked over Serah's head to see Snow approaching them. A heavy "thunk" accompanied each of his footsteps as he stopped just behind Serah, whom Lightning stepped back from Serah some. The lieutenant's face quickly adopted her usual, calm demeanor as she crossed her arms and looked up at Snow. "I'm glad to see that you've been keeping my sister safe."

Snow gave her his typical smile as he put a hand on Serah's shoulder, "And It's good to see you up and running, sis." He said back, Lighting rolling her eyes in response. She'd given up telling him they aren't siblings by this point. Besides, sooner-or-later then would be inlaws. "Heard you had to do some serious running to save Serah here." Lightning nodded before she glanced down at the cast on her arm, giving it a scowl in hopes that her arm would suddenly decide to heal quicker.

Serah noticed the cast and looked back up at Lightning, "You aren't hurt that bad are you?" She asked where Lightning shook her head in response.

"It's just a small fracture; bone isn't split in two so it should heal up quickly, fortunately. I hate how much these damn things limit my movement." She held up her arm, trying to move her wrist with no luck.

Serah just chuckled at her sister's expression and sat down at a nearby table. "You'll be fine Lightning, besides, now you can practice using your sword left handed." Lightning scowled slightly before glancing around the bar as she sat down at the table across from Serah.

Serah looked past Lightning, noticing Henri for the first time who was just watching around the bar. Snow also looked at the Detective, where he and Serah then looked back at Lightning. Snow was the first to chime in, "Finally have yourself a boyfriend?" He smiled as he quickly moved out of the way of a chair that Lightning kicked towards him. The sound of the chair falling brought Henri's attention back to the group.

"No," said Lightning with irritation in her voice, "This is my partner for the time being, Detective Henri Robespierre." Henri held out his hand and gave both Snow and Serah a smile as he shook both of their hands.

"I thought you usually worked alone Claire." said Serah as she looked back at her sister. Serah was the only person that Lightning allowed to use her old name. She wasn't happy of Serah using it, but it wasn't something Lightning would argue about. The last time Lightning had gotten seriously angry at Serah, she had almost lost her sister for good. So Lightning did her best to not risk losing her sister on a bad note and never bothered to argue.

"It's under command's orders that we were assigned to work together." said Henri as he smiled some. It doesn't take much to notice that she is going along with this in a sour mood." Serah and Snow chuckled some as Lightning glared at Henri, who just maintained his smile. Henri looked back at Serah and Snow, "Command wants a detective to accompany her because we assuming that she is the target. So I'm her partner to help figure out how Dale works."

Serah raised an eyebrow as Snow looked at Henri. "Dale?"

Henri nodded, crossing his arms, "He's our domestic terrorist, a.k.a the guy who would have gotten you had your sister not shown up."

The two nodded as Serah looked back at Lightning, "What happened Lightning? I know there was another place that got hit, but how'd he manage to do it?"

Lightning shifted in her seat, rubbing her head with her good hand. "Hell if I know Serah; he just showed up out of nowhere and wha-lah, shit hit the fan."

"Any idea where he might be hiding right now?"

Lightning sighed and shook her head, "No we don't, but can we please talk about something else? I just finished recounting this story multiple times and it's really the last thing I want to have on my mind."

"Alright, sorry." said Serah as she looked up at Snow. "Mind grabbing me something to drink please?"

Snow nodded and looked at Henri and Lightning, "You two want something to drink as well?" Henri declined one, though Lightning nodded her head. "Just a glass of water for me." Snow went off towards the bar to retrieve the drinks they had asked for as Lightning looked back at Serah.

"Well," started Serah who leaned forwards in her seat and rested her arms on the table, "If you wish to talk about something new, then how about I inform you that Snow and I were finally able to set up a wedding date?" She smiled at a slightly surprised Lightning.

The surprise didn't last long as a very rare smile came over Lightning's face, "Finally found an opening in both your schedules, huh? Took you two long enough." Her smile faded as she thought about work possibly getting in the way of her attending the wedding; _please don't say tomorrow for I will be forced to strangle you. _"When is it?"

"Don't worry Claire, it's about two months from now, which should give you plenty of time to schedule a break from your work." Serah hadn't dropped her smile, giving her sister a "I'm smarter than you think" look.

Lightning's smile returned, but only for a few moments as she took a quick glance around the bar. She was getting that bad feeling again, though she couldn't make out anything bad. She noticed two Guardian Corps officers having entered the bar. Both shared the same dual pauldrons with the red marks to indicate their rank as Lieutenants like Lightning. She couldn't recognize them because their backs were turned to her. She shook her head as she looked back at Serah and forced out a smile despite the ever growing feeling. "I'm glad to hear it Serah, I'll start talking with my COs as soon as I can."

Serah sat up again in her seat, "Yay! I still have to get the invites out to mostly everybody, Snow and I set up the date today so you and the other NORA members are the only ones we've invited so far."

Lightning nodded her head as she glanced back at Henri who had proceeded to zone-out once more, not that she could blame him. She felt a little bad that he was so excluded from the conversation, but then again he didn't seem to upset about it. She scowled as she took another glance around the bar, as that feeling of danger hadn't subsided. She knew well enough to trust it, as it had saved her skin a few times during her time as a l'cie and even when she was on duty. She looked over at Snow, who had stopped to talk with one of the officers. He had a look of sheer confusion as he conversed with them, as did Lebreau who was pointing to the two officers as she talked with the other NORA members.

Serah glanced back at the two officers before looking at Lightning again, "People you know?" ash asked.

Lightning shook her head as her eyes settled on the sandy-colored hair of one officer who had removed his hat. The man's hair was rather un-kept and came down to the base of his neck. It wasn't too unusual to see some members having their own style to their uniforms, hence Lightning's attire. She could see a black harness of sorts with two small holsters for what looked like two batons that were under each of the man's arms. Something donned on her as she looked at the harness, and noticed several knives sheathed in various locations, with many being makeshift sheaths the man had attached to the harness. It finally hit her like a boulder as she looked at the officer's gloveless hands, and saw crisscrossing scars traveling down the back of his hand. Her eyes widened before she quickly stood up and attempted to grab her BS at her side, but the cast on her hand prevented her from getting a good grip on the saber as she attempted to pull it free. It fell to the floor as she jerked her head to it, swearing out loud before looking back at the officer who looked at Lightning along with everyone else.

He only smiled at her, with small amounts of blood splatter on his right cheek from the original owner of the uniform. The uniforms front, especially the collar, was soaked with blood and there were a few puncture marks from a knife located along the front. Lightning immediately went for her BS again as Dale quickly took a glass that had been sitting next to him and smashed it into the side of Snow's head, stunning him for a moment as Dale dived over the counter and behind the bar. Lightning got ahold of her gun blade, switching it to gun mode and brought it up to fire on Dale. However, she only saw Dale's buddy get up from his seat and dive over the counter after Dale.

Then a grenade came flying over the counter, Lightning acting instantly by flipping the table up and yanking Serah behind it. Lightning felt Henri bump into her as he too took cover behind the table as the grenade went off making their ears ring. A hole appeared in front of Lightning's face, it accompanied by a whizzing noise from a piece of shrapnel sent out by the grenade. There was not a second wasted as she stood up and took aim towards the counter, where she could see Snow had received a couple nasty cuts from the grenade itself and the glass having been smashed against his head. He caught sight of Lightning and ducked down as Dale's friend stood up from behind the counter, a pistol in his hand. He looked around the room for a target and failed to see Lightning quick enough to avoid the few rounds she put into his torso, the recoil causing her weapon to climb and place one through his throat. The man stumbled back into the shelf behind the bar, knocking a few bottles down as he grabbed is throat in a panic, hacking and coughing as blood poured from his wounds. Eventually his gurgling ended as he fell behind the counter, which Dale had yet to rise up from behind.

Lightning quickly began to approach it, but stopped in her tracks as she heard the sound of a window shattering. She looked towards the source, only to her the sound of a bottle smashing and flames appearing and coating the floor and a nearby table. Another window shattered, the assaulting object being a bottle with a flaming rag stuffed in the top which struck a table several patrons were sitting at. Flames coated the unlucky men and the table as the bottle shattered and the contents made contact with flaming rag.

She shut out their screams, knowing there was nothing she could do for them as she quickly grabbed hold of Serah and yanked her out of the way of another firebomb as it came smashing through another window. The bar was quickly going up in flames as more of the firebombs had been thrown through various windows. Lightning looked back at the counter, where she couldn't see any sign of Dale yet. Gadot quickly herded a few people, Maqui and Yuj included, towards an exit to get them out of the quickly growing blaze. However, his attempt was quickly stopped as he rammed a door open, only to take a large boot to his sternum, knocking him back into the building and onto a table which broke under the impact. He was quickly followed by the owner of said boot.

Lightning still had ahold of Serah and had her gun aimed towards the counter, just waiting for Dale to show himself, however the flames were quickly growing and they might remain trapped if they remained inside to long. She looked back and spotted Henri, who had his weapons drawn and was watching the doors and windows. She noticed that his hands were trembling some and his face showed a hint of fear. _Great, I just hope he doesn't freeze up._ "Henri!" she shouted over the sound of the flames which were quickly over taking the building. He looked at her, and then quickly caught Serah as the young woman was shoved towards him. "Get her out of here, now!" He stared at the lieutenant for a moment before nodding his head and quickly making is way towards the nearest exit.

She looked back towards the exit Gadot had made and stared in astonishment at the man who had Gadot held above his head. His hair was cut very short, though the flames made it difficult to tell what the color was. She could see on his back was a large symbol sewn into the back of it, it being of the same AMP Tech that Snow used for his coat. The thing that astounded her was the man's sheer size. He then tossed Gadot towards the bar, Gadot smashing into the back wall and falling to the ground on the other side. He then turned to look at Lightning, but he didn't get a chance to attack as he was tackled to the ground by Snow, who proceeded to mount the man and start pummeling him. Snow was then tossed off him as they both stood up, where Lightning could see the man was almost a foot taller than Snow was, with a physique to match.

She was about to assist when she saw her main target hop over the counter and bolt out the door Gadot had opened up. She then stood there, looking between Snow and the doorway, unsure of what to do. However, Snow made the choice for her as he shouted to her, "Go get the bastard who ran Sis, we'll handle this guy!" Snow smiled, cracking his knuckles, taking a stance in front of the man as Gadot returned from his place upon the floor, stepping up to the man's right side.

"Alright, don't die on us Snow!" Lightning yelled back as she hesitated for a moment then quickly bolted after Dale. When she exited the building, which was engulfed in flames at this point, along with the neighboring buildings, she could see several other men who were busy fighting with Guardian Corps members who had arrived to investigate the fire. She saw Serah was out of the way of the fighting, and noticed Henri was in the midst of a fight with two thugs. He was only managing to hold his own against the two, and she could see a cut on his arm, and she assumed it was his blood that was on the thug's knife. She decided to lend him some assistance, quickly dispatching one of the men with a burst form her gun blade. Both Henri and the other thug jerked their heads to the dead man before back to each other. Henri quickly deflected a swing from a crowbar the man was holding before placing a round through his head with his pistol. Henri breathed heavily as he looked at the dead men before turning to thank Lighting, but was unable to as the lieutenant was in a dead run after Dale.

She watched Dale make a sharp turn into an alleyway, but she knew better than to follow right after him. She did not want to risk being caught in a trap by him. Pressing herself to the corner of the alleyway, she held her gun blade up, as best she could with the cast, and carefully proceeded to peak around the corner. Dale was nowhere to be seen, and the alleyway was a dead end. There were a couple trashcans nearby, which meant he was either hiding there, or had snuck his way up to the rooftops. She looked up towards the rooftops, the highest building only being two stories in height, but she couldn't see him.

Instead of heading into the alley, Lightning activated her grav-con unit, which she used to quickly scale the wall and land on the rooftops with her weapon at the ready. Most of the rooftops of New Bodhum were barren, though a few did have ventilation systems on them. Nothing was large enough for someone to hide behind, but she wasn't taking any chances so she scanned the area carefully, looking for anything she could find. However, after a few minutes, her search turned up nothing, which she glanced down into the alley to see if he was actually hiding behind the trashcans, to no avail. She looked around more, swearing at the thought he had managed to escape again. She hoped down off the rooftop and landed in alley, watching the rooftops once more before she started walking. "Dammit, again" She ran her casted hand through her hair, and winced slightly as it caught her hair. "Smooth one Lighting." She said dejectedly.

She looked around once more before sighing angrily and started walking by the trashcans. She immediately stopped as she felt something touch her shin, but instead it remained taut against it. She looked down and noticed a black string. Her eyes followed the string to the trashcans, where the string was taut and stretched across the entire alley. She smirked ever so slightly as she stepped over it and looked at it. _Good thing I decided to take the high road, maybe he's not as clever as he likes to think of himself. _She switched he gun blade to its sword form as she went to cut the string, so no unlucky saps would accidently trigger what she figured was a bomb Dale had hidden amongst the trashcans.

Then everything became a blur as something heavy fell on her, smashing her into the ground. Her weapon slid along the ground out of her reach as pain flared up from her head, arm, and side which were all crushed by her weight and the weight of whatever hit her. Doing the only thing she could at the moment, she turned onto her back to see what had fallen on her and it was exactly who she was looking for. His fist made contact with her face, causing it to recoil and smack into the ground once more, making the pain already there flare up even more. She recovered enough to move her head out of the way of another punch, resulting in Dale's punch hitting the hard packed dirt.

This stunned him long enough to Lightning to throw him off and for her to stumble onto her feet, still dazed from the initial assault. She noticed that she was having severe trouble breathing through her nose which guessed must have been broken from his punch. The blood she felt dripping over her lips confirmed that. Dale was up on his feet, both clubs fully extended as he turned to look at her. He had ditched the top half of the uniform, now only wearing a black form fitting t-shirt, but he still had the harness of knives. He had yet to clean the dried blood that had splattered onto his right cheek, which only made the smile he had even more eerie.

He immediately broke into a charge towards her, where he swung at a downwards angle once he reached her. Stepping back to dodge the blow, she then ducked under a horizontal swing towards her head. She stepped to his side, standing up and throwing a kick aimed towards his stomach which contacted, causing him to grunt and stumble backwards. She followed it up with a hard punch to his blood stained cheek then took that moment to make a mad dash for her BS. She dived forwards, performing a roll that allowed her to grab both the sword and rise to her feet.

He was right there in front of her, where she blocked one strike towards her head and she brought her leg up to dodge a swing aimed towards her thigh. However, he ducked low once more and used the club he struck first with to hit her other thigh, causing her to stumble back.

Blocking another strike aimed towards her head, Dale then brought a knee up and hit her square in the stomach, knocking the wind out of Lightning. To avoid being hit by one of his club, Lightning quickly clinched with Dale, and began to push him back. This worked for a moment before Dale managed to gain an under hook on her, where he then turned his back to her, and used the hook to lift her up over his hip and slam her onto the ground. She hadn't managed to recover from the knee strike, so there was no air for her to lose this time, but it still hurt like hell all the same.

Rather than a mount position, he had landed on with his torso facing her face and lying on top of her own chest. His legs were sprawled out to the side and he still had the hook on her arm. There was that laugh again, which she quickly forgot about as she took two hard punches to the face from his free hand before she did the only thing she could think of, and that was to bite down as hard as she could on the nearest thing. It turned out to be his bicep, and she could taste blood as he shouted in pain. She was then able to shove Dale over her head, allowing her to stand up onto her feet. Dale was quickly getting onto his feet, but it gave her an opening she took quick advantage of and threw a hard kick aimed directly at his head.

It sent a tremor through her leg as it connected perfectly, knocking Dale right to the ground in a complete daze. His body had gone limp upon contact, though he must have only been out for few moments as he was beginning to move once more. Lightning didn't give him any chance to stand up as she pushed him down onto his back with her foot, where she then stood near him with her gun aimed straight at his head. She knew well enough to stay out of his reach, and he simply looked at her in a daze. "Don't move." She said with cold authority.

Dale just stared at her, blinking a few time before realizing how bad his position was. Lightning noticed he had fallen right next to the string and she was happy he hadn't managed to land on it. She fired a shot right next to his head, just to remind him he was in no position to do anything. Looking at the spot where she had shot, he then began to chuckle some as he slowly looked at her, raising his hands up in the surrendering position. She really hated that sound, "Shut the hell up! What the hell do you have to laugh about anyways?"

Dale certainly was a new type of criminal that Lightning had never faced before. He was quite the capable fist fighter, and his first attack showed he was a cunning, intelligent, and dangerous man. His next move she couldn't figure out whether to rank it as extremely cunning, stupid, or just plain desperate. Desperate was the best adjective she could select as she saw him quickly grab hold of the wire that was next to him and yank hard on it.

The resulting explosion threw her up against a brick wall, slamming her hard against it before she dropped to the ground. Her body was racked with pain and she was terrified she might pass out again. Her vision blackened, but she battled her body's attempt to shut down. It was the one thing any Guardian Corps member learned to do, and that was to never be a slave to your own body. She coughed hard, she swore she saw some blood land on the ground and it wasn't from her nose, and looked around for her weapon which she had dropped. It was only a few feet in front of her, and she began a desperate crawl to get ahold of it.

She hadn't moved a foot when a boot met her face, knocking her out cold. She awoke a moment latter, lying on her stomach with her head facing the nearby wall. She began to hack and cough, blood dripping from her forehead, nose and mouth as she attempted to push herself up. Pain erupted through her arm, forcing a cry of pain form her as she fell onto her side and rolled to her back, holding the arm that was now in a cracked and badly damaged cast. A moment later, she heard his laugh, and managed to focus her gaze on her gun blade that was pointed at her head.

Dale was laughing despite the gash that was on his right arm, along with the cut that was dripping blood down the side of his face and over his eye, which he was forced to close so blood wouldn't drip into it. "Now," He started, breathing heavily, "That is exactly!" another pause for air, "What I was hoping for!" He began laughing once more despite the fact he was out of breath. He then looked at her as he calmed himself down. "Farron, you are the reason I enjoy what I do."

He knelt down near her, keeping her weapon aimed at her. She could have attempted something, but she was in too much pain to react quickly enough. His remark proved why he was a unique criminal to her, as he said "That's why I will anxiously await our next meeting." He smiled more, where she could see his teeth were red form his mouth also bleeding. "I can't kill you yet Lightning. I'm going to show you," He paused to get another breath of air, "You and I, we aren't that different Lightning, and I'm going to prove it to you. All in due time I will!" He laughed again at her confused expression, which he then stood up and started walking towards a nearby wall while activating his grav-con unit. "You'll see Farron! There's little difference between us!" Gun shots then rang came from the end of the alleyway, which Dale quickly reacted to by firing a few rounds of his own before sprinting up the wall and vanishing over the rooftops. Lightning just remained lying where she was, trying to shut out the pain that was wreaking havoc on her body. Henri then stepped up next to her, watching the rooftops with his pistol at the ready before he then glanced at her and knelt down.

She didn't bother to look at him; instead she only stared blankly up at the sky. "Don't you die lieutenant!" Henri shouted as he started pulled out a communications device and called for medical personnel. He then quickly began doing his best to stop her bleeding, using the basic first aid skills all Guardian Corps members were taught.

She saw something fall form the sky, then heard a metallic "thunk" next to her, which she slowly craned her head to look at. It was her Blazefire Saber, back in its sword form. She closed her eyes, finally losing the fight to stay conscious. She could hear Henri trying to keep her awake, but that pain was too much for her to shut out. Then she began to hear the laugh, the damned laugh that would always seem to haunt her. Dale was going to die one way or another; she'd make sure of it.


	4. Chapter 4

Lighting felt miserable sitting on her couch, watching whatever happened to be on the television at the time. She'd never really spent much time in front of the television beyond watching the news which often covered alerts of creature sightings and activity. Beyond that, what it would cover would vary. There was hardly any entertainment channels, not that Lightning had ever really watched much before The Fall.

She hated being stuck at home, but Command had given orders to rest after the injuries she had sustained. Grimacing, she glanced down at herself as she felt the pain in her ribs flare up. Being smashed into the brick wall by Dale's bomb had cracked a couple of her ribs, as well as having further injured her arm. Her nose had for the most part recovered from the boot she'd taken to the face though it was still sore to the touch. Touching it, she winced at the tenderness of it then she ran a hand down to her mouth where a scowl grew on her face as she brushed across her teeth. That asshole had also managed to chip one of her front teeth when he had kicked her in the face.

All Lightning could do was miserably sigh once more at her current situation. She focused in on what was being said by the newscaster when they made mention of another murder that had occurred within New Bodhum, the trademark scowl of her's only growing as the reporter went on to describe the scene

"A few hours ago, three bodies were discovered in this small apartment when a postal worker had discovered blood seeping from underneath the doorway. The bodies were identified as the Mellanows, all three members having been brutally and viciously stabbed and cut with a knife, not even a four year old child was at the mercy of this sick individual." The reporter glanced over to see the bodies being removed from the scene

The reporter turned back to the camera as she spoke again, "As you can see, the Guardian Corp is now removing the bodies from the scene." The reporter had more to say, but Lightning turned off the television before she could continue.

Lightning stood up and made her way towards her front door, ignoring the soreness of her left leg. She really needed fresh air, and she smiled slightly when she opened the door and found it to be raining outside. The air was slightly chilled as were the raindrops and it felt refreshing on her skin.

She was somewhat relieved that Dale hadn't performed any of his more serious antics, but nobody was happy that he was so capable of slipping under the radar. He must have a network of sorts to work through, as nobody alone could escape notice like that on their own. Granted the Guardian Corp was nowhere near as strong as it had been back on Cocoon, and technology wise it was lacking because of how much had been lost.

The thought of people actually helping Dale made her heart sink. With people struggling to survive regardless of where they lived, how could others even think of helping a man whose only agenda appears to be to kill as many people as possible? Had so few decent people survived? She found that hard to believe considering the ease of finding volunteers to help build new homes.

Placing her back against her now closed door and slowly sliding down it till she was sitting; Lightning watched the rain drops break apart as they hit the ground. She rubbed her torso as she recalled the last words Dale had said to her just before he had parted. _You and I, we aren't that different Lightning and I'm going to prove it to you._

What was he talking about? She couldn't argue that both of them were proficient and dangerous opponents, but she knew that wasn't what he had been referring to when he had made that statement. Lightning was nothing like him, she never harmed innocent people, ever. That psychopath blew up an entire market place and school because he found it amusing, and Lightning had never killed an innocent person. The only people she's killed tried to kill her first, even the lives of the Guardian Corp members she had taken when she had been a l'Cie.

She only began to feel worse as memories of her days as a l'Cie crept into her mind. Being hunted down by people that had been her allies only a couple days before was tough and struggling to survive like she had been forced to do was never fun; fearing for her sister the entire time only made it worse. It made her appreciate her days in basic training for the GC, as those days had toughened her up both physically and mentally. She learned how to fight through such horrid feelings and how to keep going even at her lowest. It allowed her to keep leading the people who suffered with her through that incident.

The scowl turned to a smile though as she began to remember the good times she did have and the new friends she had made in the adventure. Even if they managed to get on her nerves at times, Snow and Fang in particular, there was a bond she had formed with them that could never be broken. She glanced up at the massive crystal pillar that stood just on the outside of New Bodhum, the pillar raised by Fang and Vanille to stop Cocoon from crashing into Gran Pulse and annihilating everyone. Not even that was capable of breaking those bonds that had been formed.

It was Serah next who came to Lightning's mind. She wondered where her sister was, other than being with Snow. That big oaf better be keeping his eye on Serah, Lightning was just too worried about her little sister being unsupervised with Dale still rampant. As long as she was at the least with several members of NORA, Lightning felt some sense of security; until Serah was under her personal protection though, it was going to be impossible for Lightning to relax easily.

She looked up at the grey, cloud filled sky. The rain clouds were making their way past New Bodhum, so the rain had begun to subside. She was disappointed that there had been no lighting and thunder. She loved to see bright and unpredictable arcs flash through the sky, followed by the powerful sound of the thunder crack. The most beautiful thing to her was a lightning storm at night, when the entire sky would light up and the bolt of lightning was so clearly seen. She enjoyed trying to follow and detail every angle, curve, and branch of each individual ones; when she could not only hear but feel the thunder, she couldn't be any happier.

She closed her eyes as she focused in on the rhythmic sound of the raindrops falling to ground, beginning to shut out the feeling of the cool air. As she kept her focus on the sound, she could feel the tension in her body slowly fade away as well as the chaotic thoughts in her mind slowly begin to subside.

As she felt all her muscles become relaxed, from her face to her toes, something snuck its way into her mind. At first it was so quiet Lightning didn't notice it at first, but ever so slowly did she pick up on it. Her attempts to shut it out only seemed to amplify it, and as it picked up in volume she was able to finally make out just what it was. All forms of relaxation began to fade as anger began to boil up in her at that damned laughter grew louder and louder.

It was taunting her, laughing at her failures to save the people she had sworn to protect, laughing at her inability to save the friendly couple at the market, to rescues the people that had been taken out in the college, and at her failure to protect the family that had recently had their lives taken by a brutal and sadistic man. Even worse, it laughed at her inability to stop that sadistic man. Several times he had been right there to capture, but each time she had failed and he took the life of another innocent.

A face began to take shape, it was the source of the laughter. It was Dale's face that formed in her mind, laughing so that she'd know the consequences of being too arrogant in her own abilities and underestimating the capabilities of his. He was letting her know just what an evil man like him could do when you refuse to accept the possibility that someone like him existed.

She heard him begin to speak between each chuckle, "What wrong Lightning? I've already gotten under your skin, huh?" a chuckle followed the question before he spoke again, "Don't get mad at me, you are the one who wasn't prepared. You survived being a l'Cie and after facing the people you did, you should have expected someone like me to have survived. All those deaths are on your hands missy! All! That! Blood!" He burst into laughter, it echoing in her head as her hand curled into a tight fist.

Letting out a shout of frustration, she slammed her good fist against the wall as she opened her eyes, staring at the ground. Dale's face and laughter faded form her mind as she remained sitting there, her whole body tense. It couldn't be her fault; she had done nothing to those people. No amount of convincing herself could do the trick though, deep inside she did feel at fault. He may be the one pulling the proverbial trigger, but it was her that continued to fail in stopping him from doing so.

She placed her face in her hands as she tried to shut out the thoughts, but they wouldn't stop speaking. It was just like when she had failed to protect Serah when she had become a l'Cie. Rather, Lightning turned her back on her younger sister and left her high and dry, nearly losing her forever simply because she refused to accept her being a l'Cie and her engagement to Snow. Was she truly this incapable of protecting people?

She pondered the question for a few as she sat there before she lowered her hands, a more determined look forming on her face. "No." She said aloud, standing up onto her feet as she took a deep breath to calm herself. "I will stop him; I will not let that son of a bitch go free. I will not." With one more deep breath, she could feel the tension slowly fade from her body. She looked up once more at the clouds, though all she noticed was the sun shining brightly instead.

"Lieutenant Farron!" a voice called ahead of her. She looked towards the source to see Detective Robespierre heading towards her. It was easy to tell he had been walking in the rain judging by his wet overcoat and mud spatter on his boots and pant legs. He stopped in front of her, giving her a quick salute which she returned before he spoke again. "Sorry to intrude Lieutenant, but I was simply informing you of General Ney's briefing tomorrow at 16:00. His orders are that you are to attend."

Lightning nodded, she had an assumption of what it was about, but it never hurt to ask. "What is the topic of this briefing?"

"Dale." Just as she thought, "Ney wants a behavioral analysis of him and for my segment of the investigative service to provide possible MOs for him. As for the rest, it's discussing possible actions and plans that can be achieved to deal with Dale."

"Alright, thank you for informing me detective. Anything else?"

"Actually yes, there is a second reason behind the briefing. Reports are arriving from the outlying settlements about heavy bandit activity, in particular Cao Morn's group." Lighting's scowl returned as he said it. As if a domestic terrorist wasn't bad enough, now they had the bandits acting up again.

Right after the fall had occurred, it had become a free-for-all for many people that were not alongside military forces or had any strong leadership. Even civilians who had the opportunity to meet up with military forces were not always safe.

For a few months it was a double edged sword for those who couldn't easily defend themselves as some regiments and parties of military personnel took to the art of thievery and became bandits. It was actually one of the current goals of the Guardian Corps to root out and eliminate these bandits and rouge groups. It had been tough for the Guardian Corps to earn the trust of survivors, and in truth they owed a lot to NORA for establishing that trust.

Snow and his friends had quickly taken up the task of dealing with the rouge bands, and since they did not belong to any of the military organizations, as well as being composed of volunteers, refugees were quick to trust the group. It only helped General Ney and Chief Investigator Kuronad that Lightning was good friends with Snow; once NORA began working with the Guardian Corps to protect the refugees, the trust had begun to build between the Corps and the refugees.

The bandits mostly kept to themselves, and when they did attack they would often only attack frontier homes, or unprotected settlements. Despite some wielding military equipment and having the training, none of them were often willing to risk attracting too much attention from the more powerful Guardian Corps and NORA. Even Cao Morn, an ex-commander of PSICOM and warlord of the strongest of the rouge groups, rarely would take the risk of attracting attention by raiding the more defended locations. Bandits knew well enough that they would not have the strength to face the allied forces of NORA and the Corps.

Lightning sighed, looking at Henri. "How "active" are we talking about? Are they just attacking the frontier with greater frequency, or attacking deeper into the settled areas?"

Henri was looking at his boot, tapping his heel on the ground to knock some mud loose from it before speaking. "The latter." He said as he looked back up at her. "It's why the meeting has been called. Ney's worried about how bad things might become with the bandits and Dale acting up."

Lightning leaned back against her door, crossing her arms, wincing slightly when she felt a shot of pain go through her side. "Does the general think they are working together?"

"Honestly, seems quite unlikely." Henri said. "Dale seems…too erratic for Cao's taste, to undisciplined and headstrong. Regardless, even if they are not working together it's going to be awful if both are operating at the same time."

Lightning nodded her head, "I can understand that then."

"Yeah, hopefully we can devise a plan. Get rid of one problem and make things easier for us." Lightning nodded her head, looking down at the ground. She looked back up at Henri as he began speaking once more. "So, are things alright on your end, beyond the injuries of course? You seemed a little agitated when I was approaching…"

Lightning watched him, debating whether to tell him. It did not take long for her to decide to keep quiet about what was on her mind. "No, I'm ok. Just…worried about my sister is all."

"Understandable, I'm sure you are only one of many to be on edge. Hell even I'm getting alitte antsy. Maybe you should go check up on her? Might put your mind at ease."

Lightning thought about it, then gave a nod with a slight smile. "Yeah, sounds like a good idea. Just need to grab my gear." She then turned and went back into her home to grab hold of her trusted gunblade.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I know this is not much of an update, rather it's mostly to let people know that this story isn't dead. With having two stories to work on also and my "wonderful" work ethic I can clearly be rather slow, to put it lightly. So yeah, this is mostly to let people know the story still lives. As for those who've previously read this chapter, there are some clear changes to it. I decided to rework it because I felt like I was beginning to rush the story some, and by doing this it will actually help me work in some concepts for later. I'll end this note here before it ends up too long, thank you for reading if you actually read this far!**


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